For him, it is a return with mixed feelings. On the pitch at the Rat Verlegh Stadium this Wednesday, Martijn Reuser – a one-cap Dutch international – returns to familiar ground. But the player who wore the NAC Breda shirt from 2008 to 2010 is no longer that man as he takes his seat alongside Queen Máxima at a symposium on the mental health of professional footballers. Reuser, who took part in the documentary *Real Men Don’t Cry* earlier this year, is regarded – just like the other former footballers in attendance, Gianni Zuiverloon, Edson Braafheid and Thomas Marijnissen – as an expert by experience in the field of mental health issues. He can still picture himself standing there, on that Wednesday evening in October 1993, on the touchline at the Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam. With 22 minutes remaining in Ajax’s European Cup Winners’ Cup match against Turkish side Besiktas, manager Louis van Gaal sent the then 18-year-old Reuser onto the pitch. Before recounting the anecdote, the Amsterdam native – now 51 – is keen to emphasise that he holds Van Gaal in very high regard as a manager. “But what happened back then – with the knowledge we have now – really shouldn’t have been allowed to happen.” Reuser is sharing his story to help break down the taboo that still exists in the world of football when it comes to talking about mental pressure. Reuser mimics a kicking motion with his right leg. “I was given a kick up the backside, so to speak, when I had to make my European debut that evening. Even though I was absolutely terrified of having to play in front of 65,000 people for the first time in my life.” There was hardly any attention paid to the teenager. Not to mention any aftercare, says Reuser. “As an 18-year-old, Van Gaal never once asked me how I was getting on. How I was feeling. There was no time for that. Because Ajax – and therefore Van Gaal too – just wanted to reach the top as quickly as possible.” “I went through an enormous struggle at Ajax. For the first year and a half after that match against Besiktas, I played with back pain. For a year and a half, I kept my mouth shut. Nobody knew about it. I think now that if only someone had bothered to ask how I was doing back then. To say that it really is very nerve-wracking to play for Ajax’s first team.” “No, what did Van Gaal keep saying? ‘You have to be better than Litmanen!’ Isn’t that a bit bizarre to say to an 18-year-old?” As well as Van Gaal, he worked with Gerard van der Lem, Co Adriaanse and Spitz Kohn as coaches in Amsterdam. All of them were professionals, he says. There was just one problem: “All they could do was shout at you.” Later in his career, Van Gaal was, in fact, praised for the ‘whole-person’ approach he adopted by focusing on the person behind the footballer. Reuser: “Looking back on that period and with the benefit of hindsight, I know that Van Gaal had my best interests at heart. You can only wonder whether his approach was the best method.” As Arjan Veurink’s assistant coach with the Dutch women’s national team, Reuser certainly knows from personal experience how not to do things. In his current role, he describes himself as the link between the head coach, the players and the rest of the coaching staff. Every day, he reaps the benefits of the neuro-linguistic programming course. “It’s brilliant, everything I learnt there. I’ve learnt so much about myself and other people. And that’s worth its weight in gold.” “Looking back, I recognise things I never used to see. It’s satisfying, in my role as trainer-coach, to ask the players questions that I myself was never asked back in the day.” ‘I’d recommend every footballer to take an NLP course like this. Clubs should facilitate this. Invest in your players; put a small percentage of the budget towards education. That way, you’ll not only get better players, but also better role models.’   submitted by   /u/Roller95 [link]   [comments]